List of Available PowerShell Cmdlets

PowerShell is a completly new scripting language to me and as such there’s so much I don’t know about it, and while I can browse the net all day looking for information, I wanted to see how I could get PowerShell to tell me everything it knows first before I turn to the almighty Google. Searching for available Microsoft PowerShell Cmdlet descriptions (pronounced command-lets) and what they do I used the get-help command. After I ran this, I immediately noticed a Get-Help * command appear, so off I went.

Get-Help *

Well honestly this returned more than I was expecting in included aliases, providers, and help files, I on the otherhand was only interested in cmdlets, at least for the moment. So in true PowerShell style, I ran the following query against PowerShell to only show me the cmdlets in the help section.

Get-Help * | Where-Object { $_.Category -eq 'Cmdlet' }

Of course, this also told me that that the category was a Cmdlet and to keep things looking nice, I decided to filter out only what I wanted by taking it a step further and running another query against my query…

The following command returned a lot of useful information about PowerShell cmdlets. Every item in the PSSnapIn should be prefixed with “Microsoft.PowerShell,” I just edited it out room to make it look cleaner.

Imports comma-separated value (CSV) files in the format produced by the Export-CSV cmdlet and returns objects that correspond to the objects represented in that CSV file.

Utility

Invoke-Expression

Runs a Windows PowerShell expression that is provided in the form of a string.

Utility

Invoke-History

Runs commands from the session history.

Core

Invoke-Item

Invokes the provider-specific default action on the specified item.

Management

Join-Path

Combines a path and child-path into a single path. The provider supplies the path delimiters.

Management

Measure-Command

Measures the time it takes to run script blocks and cmdlets.

Utility

Measure-Object

Measures characteristics of objects and their properties.

Utility

Move-Item

Moves an item from one location to another.

Management

Move-ItemProperty

Moves a property from one location to another.

Management

New-Alias

Creates a new alias.

Utility

New-Item

Creates a new item in a namespace.

Management

New-ItemProperty

Sets a new property of an item at a location.

Management

New-Object

Creates an instance of a .Net or COM object.

Utility

New-PSDrive

Installs a new WIndows PowerShell drive.

Management

New-Service

Creates a new entry for a Windows Service in the registry and the Service Database.

Management

New-TimeSpan

Creates a TimeSpan object.

Utility

New-Variable

Creates a new variable.

Utility

Out-Default

Send the output to the default formatter and the default output cmdlet. This cmdlet has no effect on the formatting or output. It is a placeholder that lets you write your own Out-Default function or cmdlet.

Utility

Out-File

Sends output to a file.

Utility

Out-Host

Sends output to the command line.

Utility

Out-Null

Deletes output instead of sending it to the console.

Utility

Out-Printer

Sends output to a printer.

Utility

Out-String

Sends objects to the host as a series of strings.

Utility

Pop-Location

Changes the current location to the location most recently pushed onto the stack. You can pop the location from the default stack or from a stack that you create by using Push-Location.

Management

Push-Location

Pushes the current location onto the stack.

Management

Read-Host

Reads a line of input from the console.

Utility

Remove-Item

Deletes the specified items.

Management

Remove-ItemProperty

Deletes the property and its value from an item.

Management

Remove-PSDrive

Removes a Windows PowerShell drive from its location.

Management

Remove-PSSnapin

Removes Windows PowerShell snap-ins from the current console.

Core

Remove-Variable

Deletes a variable and its value.

Utility

Rename-Item

Renames an item in a Windows PowerShell provider namespace.

Management

Rename-ItemProperty

Renames a property of an item.

Management

Resolve-Path

Resolves the wildcard characters in a path and displays the path contents.

Management

Restart-Service

Stops and then starts one or more services.

Management

Resume-Service

Resumes one or more suspended (paused) services.

Management

Select-Object

Selects specified properties of an object or set of objects. It can also select unique objects from an array of objects or it can select a specified number of objects from the beginning or end of an array of objects.

Utility

Select-String

Identifies patterns in strings.

Utility

Set-Acl

Changes the security descriptor of a specified resource, such as a file or a registry key.

Security

Set-Alias

Creates or changes an alias (alternate name) for a cmdlet or other command element in the current Windows PowerShell session.

Utility

Set-AuthenticodeSignature

Uses an authenticode signature to sign a Windows PowerShell script or other file.

Security

Set-Content

Writes or replaces the content in an item with new content.

Management

Set-Date

Changes the system time on the computer to a time that you specify.

Utility

Set-ExecutionPolicy

Changes the user preference for the execution policy of the shell.

Security

Set-Item

Changes the value of an item to the value specified in the command.

Management

Set-ItemProperty

Sets the value of a property at the specified location.

Management

Set-Location

Sets the current working location to a specified location.

Management

Set-PSDebug

Turns script debugging features on and off, sets the trace level and toggles strict mode.

Core

Set-Service

Changes the display name, description, or starting mode of a service.

Management

Set-TraceSource

Configures, starts, and stops a trace of Windows PowerShell components.

Utility

Set-Variable

Sets the value of a variable. Creates the variable if one with the requested name does not exist.

Utility

Sort-Object

Sorts objects by property values.

Utility

Split-Path

Returns the specified part of a path.

Management

Start-Service

Starts one or more stopped services.

Management

Start-Sleep

Suspend shell, script, or runspace activity for the specified period of time.

Utility

Start-Transcript

Creates a record of all or part of a Windows PowerShell session in a text file.

Host

Stop-Process

Stops one or more running processes.

Management

Stop-Service

Stops one or more running services.

Management

Stop-Transcript

Stops a transcript.

Host

Suspend-Service

Suspends (pauses) one or more running services.

Management

Tee-Object

Pipes object input to a file or variable, then passes the input along the pipeline.

Utility

Test-Path

Determines whether all elements of a path exist.

Management

Trace-Command

The Trace-Command cmdlet configures and starts a trace of the specified expression or command.

Utility

Update-FormatData

Updates and appends format data files.

Utility

Update-TypeData

Updates the current extended type configuration by reloading the *.types.ps1xml files into memory.

Utility

Where-Object

Creates a filter that controls which objects will be passed along a command pipeline.